Samantha woke me up at 7 a.m. I got up, took a quick shower, and got dressed. Geoff picked me up at 7:40 and we headed to the studio. When we got there, we saw that Ace wasn’t there yet, so we quickly went back and hit up 7-11 for breakfast. I got myself a sub sandwich and some taquitos, and a diet coke.
Back at the studio Ace showed up a few minutes later and I helped he and Geoff load up the gear in the rented truck. Ace’s friend Mario came by and dropped off the equipment that Ace had rented, we all chatted for a few before Mario left to get cleaned up for today’s interview. When the guys took off, I went upstairs, hooked up the laptop, and surfed the net for 2 hours before Mario came back. I let him in and we bullshitted until the news crew showed up 20 minutes later. The crew came in, set up where they wanted to conduct the interview, and just about when they were done, Jimmy Diggs showed up and they got the show on the road. The interviewee was a bit of a bitch, but it seemed like she had to do this sort of thing a lot, and she knew exactly what she was looking for…too bad she didn’t convey this to anyone. After the interview, Jimmy, Mario and I talked for a while about converting Mario’s backyard into a Garden Cinema, and then the guys had to leave for the second part of the interview down at the Space Center downtown.
With my babysitting duties over with, I went back to my laptop and I decided to take a nap before Richard U. came to pick me up for a ride to the kick-off party for the 48HFP. Unfortunately, I was too excited to take a proper nap, so I really just tossed and turned on the couch for a couple hours. When I got up at 3:30 p.m., I finished the sub sandwich, and waited for Richard.
Richard showed up about 4:45 and since he was hungry, we took off down the street to get him a burrito at a taco shop. I was still hungry, so I got a fish burrito to mack down on. While eating Geoff called me to say that they were back at the studio and Ace needed his office keys (which I had forgot were in my pocket). We quickly finished our meal, jumped in the car and raced back. We all talked for a few minutes, and then Geoff, Richard and I all piled into Richard’s car and headed north to the kick-off party.
At the party, we were discussing what kind of projects we would like to do if we drew a certain genre. And after getting checked in we look an inventory of the filmmakers around to see if 1.) we knew anyone and 2.) if they were any good. It was slim on #1, and a definite “I dunno” on the #2. Nicholas M. and Jeff G. met us there and the 5 of us took respite next to a garbage can while we waited for the other teams to draw their genre.
When it came time for our section of teams to draw (they broke it down by screening group), I made the observation that we were up against the team that won “best film” last year (which it really wasn’t). I felt that we got robbed last year, so I was eager to do what I could to wipe that smirk off their faces. I was getting more pumped and more nervous when my name was called and I headed over to the rock filled hat to draw my stone. I reached my hand in, fumbled around with the rocks before grabbing one and pulling it out…I drew horror as our genre. I announced to the rest of the people there that I had picked that, and I heard the collective groan from Geoff and Jeff. They wanted me to go for a wild card genre (which is usually one you DON’T want), and I told them that I was happy with what I wanted. Neither Ace or I wanted comedy again, and this was this exact opposite.
The clock struck 7 p.m. and the contest officially started. We had 48 hours to finish a movie, and there wasn’t a second to waste. Richard and I hauled ass back to the studio with Geoff and Jeff in tow. We used the time on the drive back to start talking about potential story ideas. I was sure that Geoff and Jeff were doing the same thing.
Back at the studio, I informed Ace about my selection, and he was happy with the results (that made 2 of us). As soon as the rest of the gang showed up, we spent the next couple hours pitching ideas to each other. This process took longer than normal because there were 6 people trying to talk at the same time. The ideas went from horror stories from dating, the internet, stalking, midget porn (kidding), ect… and we finally landed on the idea of 4 strangers trapped in a room together with a big clock counting down. I had first pitched the idea about 40 minutes into our session, but no one wanted to do it. An hour and a half later when I pitched it again, people seemed to be on board. With a few ideas tossed around about what should happen, I locked myself away in an empty office and started to write. I wanted to crank the script out as fast as I could, but because this wasn’t a genre that I was too familiar with, I had trouble keeping the action going while making the dialog smart and concise. The heat level in the room was pretty high too, and it had no form of ventilation, so I was starting to sweat. This caused me to move at a faster pace, and within 85 minutes I got a 11-page script finished.
While I was finishing the script, the guys were contacting all of our actors/crew and locking them down for the morning. The crew would get in at 8 a.m. to start building the set, and the talent wouldn’t show up till noon.
I printed out 6 copies, and we all sat around and read it. The response was ok, but the script needed tweaking. Jeff, Geoff and I continued talking upstairs while Nicholas and Richard took off for the night. At first our rewrite session wasn’t going too well because I was being a tad bit difficult with adhering to what the directors wanted. But at the same time, I wasn’t getting enough useful information back from them to really give me the push I needed to do the 2nd draft.
Around 2:30 a.m., the guys headed off to Wal-Mart to get supplies while Ace and I went over the draft once again. We got some things worked out, and by the time the guys got back with the food for the morning, I had a 2nd draft banged out.
We were all starting to feel the pressure from the first night, and decided to take a nap and finish everything up in the morning. I followed Geoff’s lead and passed out on the love seat upstairs about 5 a.m.
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